Tuesday is last day for American Science & Surplus in Park Ridge, Illinois
The American Science & Surplus location in the northwest Chicago suburb of Park Ridge is set to close for good after one last day of business Tuesday.
The flagship store at 27 Northwest Hwy. in Uptown Park Ridge had been slated to close after the business day Monday, but announced that it would open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday for an extended 50% off sale. The store said there was "stuff left including fixtures."
American Science & Surplus has also closed its warehouse and its online sales.
The other two American Science & Surplus stores, in the west Chicago suburb of Geneva and in Milwaukee, remain open under new ownership.
Back in May, American Science & Surplus launched an online fundraiser to try to save the business. Nearly $195,000 were raised in the "Keep American Science & Surplus Alive" fundraiser, but American Science & Surplus owner Patrick Meyer wrote last month that nevertheless, the store's mail order warehouse and website had to close — and that the Park Ridge store was expected to close too.
According to the website for the store, American Science & Surplus — formerly American Science Center — was established in "about 1937" by Western Electric employee Al Luebbers.
"Al had a great interest in optics and he noticed that a company next door to the plant where he worked was throwing away reject lenses," the store's website recounts. "He asked them if he could buy the rejects and they said, 'No, But you can have them if you will haul them away.'"
Luebbers and his wife took the lenses, spruced them up, and offered them for sale on Popular Science. Orders started coming in, and this led to the founding of a business, American Lens & Photo.
After World War II, war surplus became the catalyst for the expansion of the company. Luebbers went on to open a retail store on Chicago's Northwest Side called American Science Center — which also featured educational science items.
Al Luebbers' son Jerry took over in the 70s and started a catalog operation called Jerryco in 1979. He opened a second location in Milwaukee in 1981.
In 1988, Jerry Luebbers took a partner, Scott McCausland, who bought out the Luebbers family after Jerry Luebbers died that same year at the age of 46. The Geneva location opened in 1991.
Meanwhile, American Science & Surplus launched its first website in 1995. McCausland retired and sold the company to "lifelong science geek" Philip Cable, who in turn sold to employee Patrick Meyer in 2012.
The Chicago area flagship location has moved around over the years, to Gladstone Park and most recently to Park Ridge in February 2022.
The Geneva American Science & Surplus location is on Route 38, 1/4 mile east of Kirk Road. The Milwaukee location is located at 6901 W. Oklahoma Ave. up in the 414.
